Honest question, what is acab about? Because in my mind you need someone to upkeep the law otherwise how do you deal with criminals? I’m probably just naive I suppose.
I don’t want to imply that older systems were superior, just wanted to point out historical alternatives. Saying this beforehand because I noticed that the way I talk makes people think I’m endorsing stuff I’m not.
For most of human history there was no such thing as an institutionalized state police force, and yet law and order existed for millennia. To over simplify, you would have multiple powers that would try to mediate (or fight). As an example, in medieval Europe you’d have a local lord, guilds and the church, all with some form of guards to represent their interests. And you as an individual would likely belong to such a community. Also specifically the church would go out of its way to mediate problems of other people and prevent issues before they arise, both as community building and power projection (obviously).
The police of today are mainly here to protect property and maintain the status quo, they try to act like mediators, but in such conflicts they mainly come to pacify you so someone else can handle you. Personally my main issue is that we pretend like they’re much more than a civil suppression force. Like for some reason cops are still the main way states handle suicidal people, like jesus christ…
A good cop wouldn’t tolerate the kind of systemic abuse you see in the states, and as a result, would be fired as the institution protects the abusers. All thats left is bastards
But surely, if every good cop quits - leaving only bad cops in the police - that’s not a desirable result, is it?
Shouldn’t good cops try to find ways to make all the bad cops quit, ultimately leading to a police that we could actually call good?
The problem with the police system in the USA is that it exists to protect capital, not to protect the people. The purpose of the police, as it currently exists, is to keep the lower classes in line. This is why the rich get away with most things. Even if a billionaire does get pulled over for speeding the fine isn’t even 1% of their income. More likely they won’t even be punished at all. Most people who genuinely want to help others either leave or get pushed out once they realize they’re only hurting the little guys. When people say acab or defund the police, they’re not saying that we shouldn’t have anyone to call, but they’re saying that we have to completely rebuild that necessary service. We need to take a completely different approach. Rather than sending in officers armed to the teeth into neighborhoods and communities they’re not a part of, we need to send people trained in de-escalation to their own communities (so that they’re actually invested in the well-being of their own community). Obviously there will be times when force is necessary, but the majority of the time, police officers don’t need a gun to give someone a speeding ticket or respond to a noise complaint. Also there’s a severe lack of accountability and punishment for bad cops which just encourages them to keep being bad and get worse, which is part of why we have such widespread, blatant corruption and police gangs
Tl;dr it’s a systemic issue that rewards bad behavior so good people either leave on their own or get forced out bc the system itself is rotten
the american police system is sufficiently rotten that there’s no realistic way to fix it, it needs to be completely dismantled and remade from the ground up.
If all good cops quit it would barely even be noticed.
Honest question, what is acab about? Because in my mind you need someone to upkeep the law otherwise how do you deal with criminals? I’m probably just naive I suppose.
I don’t want to imply that older systems were superior, just wanted to point out historical alternatives. Saying this beforehand because I noticed that the way I talk makes people think I’m endorsing stuff I’m not.
For most of human history there was no such thing as an institutionalized state police force, and yet law and order existed for millennia. To over simplify, you would have multiple powers that would try to mediate (or fight). As an example, in medieval Europe you’d have a local lord, guilds and the church, all with some form of guards to represent their interests. And you as an individual would likely belong to such a community. Also specifically the church would go out of its way to mediate problems of other people and prevent issues before they arise, both as community building and power projection (obviously).
The police of today are mainly here to protect property and maintain the status quo, they try to act like mediators, but in such conflicts they mainly come to pacify you so someone else can handle you. Personally my main issue is that we pretend like they’re much more than a civil suppression force. Like for some reason cops are still the main way states handle suicidal people, like jesus christ…
A good cop wouldn’t tolerate the kind of systemic abuse you see in the states, and as a result, would be fired as the institution protects the abusers. All thats left is bastards
But surely, if every good cop quits - leaving only bad cops in the police - that’s not a desirable result, is it? Shouldn’t good cops try to find ways to make all the bad cops quit, ultimately leading to a police that we could actually call good?
The problem with the police system in the USA is that it exists to protect capital, not to protect the people. The purpose of the police, as it currently exists, is to keep the lower classes in line. This is why the rich get away with most things. Even if a billionaire does get pulled over for speeding the fine isn’t even 1% of their income. More likely they won’t even be punished at all. Most people who genuinely want to help others either leave or get pushed out once they realize they’re only hurting the little guys. When people say acab or defund the police, they’re not saying that we shouldn’t have anyone to call, but they’re saying that we have to completely rebuild that necessary service. We need to take a completely different approach. Rather than sending in officers armed to the teeth into neighborhoods and communities they’re not a part of, we need to send people trained in de-escalation to their own communities (so that they’re actually invested in the well-being of their own community). Obviously there will be times when force is necessary, but the majority of the time, police officers don’t need a gun to give someone a speeding ticket or respond to a noise complaint. Also there’s a severe lack of accountability and punishment for bad cops which just encourages them to keep being bad and get worse, which is part of why we have such widespread, blatant corruption and police gangs
Tl;dr it’s a systemic issue that rewards bad behavior so good people either leave on their own or get forced out bc the system itself is rotten
the american police system is sufficiently rotten that there’s no realistic way to fix it, it needs to be completely dismantled and remade from the ground up.
If all good cops quit it would barely even be noticed.